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Analyzing Silent Hill 4
Silent Hill 4: The Room is the most divisive of the series. For some people, they believe that it's the last good Silent Hill game. Some people believe that it's where the series went bad, and it hasn't recovered since. People in the former camp don't seem to think it's as good as 1, 2, or 3 though. However, it's actually my favorite in the franchise, which I will admit, is a very unusual opinion. You have to go through every level twice, and the second time you do so, they have minimal changes. The second half of the game is an escort mission. The main character of Henry is, at least on the surface, bare bones. Well, to be honest, I actually relate to Henry more than any other Silent Hill protagonist. I'm not a father, a widower, or a soldier (oh, and if you're wondering, yes there will be spoilers about anything and everything in regards to the series). What I am, or at least was, is shy and soft-spoken, had a hard time expression emotions (Henry's infamous "what the hell?"). On top of that, Silent Hill 4 scares me the most, something that horror games are susposed to do. There's just something about unkillable enemies that ramps up the terror. Most people who like the game defend Henry by stating the fact that the story isn't really about him. It's about Walter. And yet, I think that the story is very about Henry. I'll try to explain as I go on, and I'm going to attempt to justify some of the game's most infamous flaws. It's what I think about them in my own mind, and you're free to disagree with them as you see fit. I actually see the game as a huge insight into social anxiety, specifically Henry's. Let's start with the fact that his room, where he is alone, is his "safe place." At the beginning of the game, he heals there, essentially recharges. People with social anxiety, or people who are extreme introverts recharge when they are left alone. But Henry does meet people throughout the game, and that's actually where most of my basis of this theory comes from. The first person he meets is Cynthia. There is a lot of speculation that she is a prostitute. At the very least, she is very promiscuous. My theory is that Henry actually wants human companionship, and desperate people do go to prostitutes. But Henry doesn't want sex, he wants companionship. This relationship doesn't last very long, and Cynthia dies (in-game at least). Henry is forced to move forward. The next person he meets is Jasper. Jasper is a drug addict. I don't know if it's stated, but he definitely acts like he's on something. Henry would try to form a relationship with him, but that didn't work either. Jasper's flaws catch up to him, or they catch up to Henry. Jasper has been a bad influence on Henry and when the proverbial shit hits the fan, Jasper dies and Henry is onto the next world... a prison. Honestly, I choose to believe that these worlds are where Henry has had extended interaction with these people in actual reality. They are important to Walter (and I'll get to that soon enough), with the exception of the Subway World. Yes, Walter took the subway to get room 302, but how important would that really be to him? Andrew is an authority figure and doesn't have much extended reaction to Henry. When people can't get friendship with people on their own level, they often look above or below. Andrew doesn't give a damn about Henry. Henry eventually realizes this, and Andrew it out of his life. Now, Richard is an asshole. A major asshole, abusively so. However, someone desperate for interaction of some kind would take it from anyone, even if they are as abusive as Richard. Needless to say, this isn't going to last very long and like all of the other failed relationships it just brings Henry further and further into his own problem. Maybe Richard is really the one who hurt Eileen and that ended any sort of relationship. This brings us to Eileen. She's calm, nice, and nuturing. She would make a very good friend for Henry; however, for someone like Henry, maintaining a relationship would be a lot of hard work, and he can only see his work in the relationship. This is why, to me, the second half of the game is an escort mission. It takes a lot of work to keep a relationship of any kind. To get the good endings of the game, Eileen must survive. Meanwhile, Henry is being chased down by the ghosts of the past. His older relationships are making things harder, and filling him with fear. He tries to fight them, but they can't be killed and they seem to have the potential to hurt this current relationship. He seems desperate to make sure that this relationship doesn't end up like all of the other ones, and in this desperation being alone, a place he once thought was safe, becomes a place of turmoil and worry. And then there's Walter. To me, Walter represents the negative extremes of being afraid of people and social interaction. He has come to see an apartment room as his own parent. He kills people without hesitation. Needless to say, he's a misanthrope. He is something to run from and be afraid of. This monster must be defeated thoroughly for this relationship to work. He's seen a lot more in the second half of the game and flat out shoots at the both of them, while Henry is dealing with his past experiences in one way or another. Do I think that that's what the creators intended in this game? Probably not, and honestly if it was, they could have conveyed it a lot better. It doesn't really make up for some of the game's other short-comings nonetheless anyway, like barely changing the worlds for the second half of the game. They really should have made them the "nightmare" versions of previous worlds, like they did with the Apartment World. But, art is about interpretation and video games are art. I think that this is more fascinating than a deranged murderer, and quite honestly, this story is a lot more personal. But this is probably just me looking too deep into something. Category:Miscellaneous